An octave cask is one eighth the size of a butt (i.e. 50 liters). Due to the increased wood-to-spirit contact, the small casks have a fast, very noticeable effect on the whisky inside.

Facts

Laphroaig 2005 (Duncan Taylor ‘The Octave’)

Nose

All the stuff you expect from a Laphroaig. Medicine, iodine, bandages and smoldering ashes – or to put it short: a burned down hospital at the beach. Embedded in a mix of red apples and honeyed citrus fruits.

Taste

Full-bodied, sweet and oily. Peat, medicine and seaweed balanced by white pepper, honey, vanilla and caramel.

Finish

Long, very dry and slightly peppery. Dark chocolate and mocha.

Overall

Very straightforward and not all that exciting overall. I don’t have the feeling, that the octave really added too much to the whisky. All in all a (slightly) sherried regular 10 Years Old in my opinion.

Score: 84 / 100

Facts

Laphroaig 1994 (Ian MacLeod Chieftain’s )

Nose

A little bit of medicine, iodine and ash smoke. Therefore a lot of vanilla. Green apples and coconuts followed by more fruits. Honeyed seaweed.

Taste

Sweet. Peaty ash and seaweed seasoned with rose pepper. Followed by nougat caramel, lemons, and candyfloss. Ends with firewood and licorice.

Finish

Long. Smooth and sweet. Herbs. A bit of cold smoke.

Overall

Very good, but everything is a bit too gentle and tamed for my taste.

Score: 88 / 100

The Laphroaig 21 Years Old 200th Anniversary Edition to the Friends of Laphroaig members by ballot, but now anyone can order it on the Laphroaig website. Why? Well, I guess that this has something to do with the price –  £99 for a half bottle isn’t exactly cheap.

Facts

Laphroaig 21 Years Old 200th Anniversary Edition

Nose

Very sweet with all the aromas you expect from a first-fill bourbon cask. Sweet medicinal smoke accompanied by vanilla and white honey. Oranges, sugared grapefruits and lemon slices. Hints of mint.

Taste

Sweet and smokey. Dried seaweed seasoned with sea salt. Grilled pineapples pieces in BBQ sauce. Followed by more citrus fruits and ginger.

Finish

Medium, but vanishes way too quickly. Hints of rose pepper and salt. Honeyed ash and citrus fruits.

Overall

A very elegant and mature Laphroaig. I am not the biggest fan of this citrus fruity profile but I have to acknowledge its well-balanced complexity. So overall a very good expression but not as good as I had hopped for.

Score: 89 / 100

The 2015 bottling is produced from of our finest floor malting’s malt, distilled using only the smaller stills and fully matured in our famous No1 warehouse, right by the sea. Cairdeas 2015 is therefore John’s [Master Distiller John Campbell] interpretation of how Laphroaig would have been produced at the distillery 200 years ago.

Sounds very promising!

Facts

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 200th Anniversary Edition

Nose

Barbecuing at the beach – very salty sea air mixed with campfire smoke. Not much medicine and iodine. Hints of vanilla honey and caramel toffee. All kinds of citrus fruits like lemons, limes and oranges. Mint leaves. Backed apples wrapped in bacon.

Taste

Creamy and full-bodied. Again very salty. Sweet ashes. Hints of rose pepper and herbs. Vanilla, chocolate and citrus fruits. Gets pretty flat after a short while.

Finish

Medium. A bit spicy but overall very mild. Sweet smoke with a citrus touch.

Overall

A very good Laphroaig, although a bit too progressive for my taste. The nose is a real highlight and while the rest is more than just fine, it is just not as good.

Score: 89 / 100

The Laphroaig Cairdeas 2014 got a double maturation both in bourbon barrels and in Amontillado seasoned hogsheads.

Facts

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2014

Nose

Laphroaig’s signature medical, iodine and minerals notes embedded in a muddy sweetness. Lots of oranges accompanied by hints of cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla tobacco and cooling mint. A smouldering barbecue as well as BBQ sauce. A bit sharp (read alcoholic) around the edges.

Taste

Smooth and sweet. Medicine and iodine with a whiff of peaty ashes and tar. Again lots of juicy, sweet oranges followed by apricots, sugared lemon zest and vanilla honey. Gets a bit dryer towards the end.

Finish

Long. Sweet and mild with a a good portion of gentle smoke. Coffee with a lot of sugar. Vanilla pods with a few peppercorns in between.

Overall

Outstanding. What else can I say? The casks are working very, very well together resulting in a wonderful sweet fruitiness which you don’t find in other Laphroaigs. Very smooth and balanced with a rewarding complexity.

Score: 92 / 100

Facts

Laphroaig 10 Years Old Original Cask Strength Batch 7

Nose

Sweet with caramel and vanilla accompanied by a very light phenolic touch. Citrus fruits and salted seaweed. Hints of smoked ham in the background.

Taste

Oily and vibrant. Tons and tons of peat followed by two hands full of white pepper. Only very slightly sweet which surprises given the nose. Dried apple rings covered in milk chocolate, followed by more dried fruits. Hints of oak.

Finish

Long, strong and dry. Lots of smoke balanced by floral honey and a whiff of salt. Mouthwatering.

Overall

The nose is, although very pleasant, not really laphroaig-y. Therefore you get all that great laphroaig-ness on the palate and in the finish. Another very fine batch which surprises with an outstanding amount of complexity given its young age. I think I like this batch a notch more than the previous batch.

Score: 90 / 100

All the more I am excited to have a look at three rather new expressions from Laphroaig today, namely the Original Cask Strength Batch 7, Cairdeas 2015 and the 21 Years Old. And to make things even more interesting, I will compare those three to their 2014 predecessors, respectively the 21 Years Old to an independent bottling from Ian MacLeod.

Let’s start with the Laphroaig 10 Years Old Cask Strength Batch 6.

Facts

Laphroaig 10 Years Old Original Cask Strength Batch 6

Nose

Dirty peat, iodine and sea salt. Smoked ham seasoned with white pepper. Hints of honey and cinnamon-glazed almonds. Overall pretty sweet.

Taste

Oily, creamy and rich. The high strength is definitively noticeable. Peat, medicine and iodine. Sweet vanilla balanced by a whiff of salt and peppery oak. Followed by citrus fruits and milk chocolate.

Finish

Long and drying with a lot of  sweet smoke. Mouthwatering.

Overall

Very delicate and complex. A true powerhouse. For everyone like me who loves edgy Laphroaigs.

Score: 89 / 100

Anyways, what we have here is Douglas Laing’s first ever Feis Ile Bottling, a 14 Years Old Laphroaig from a refill butt. As always, this Old Particular bottling is a single cask release (with a yield of 636 bottles this time) and is neither colored nor chill filtered. On top of that, it is bottled at 48.4% ABV and to me, this is pretty much the minimum strength required for a Laphroaig.

As some of you might know, I am not exactly the biggest fan of the new official Laphroaig 15 Years Old, so let’s see what this independent bottled Laphroaig with roughly the same age has to offer.

Facts

Laphroaig 2001 Old Particular Feis Ile Bottling 2015 (Douglas Laing)

Nose

Laphroaig-tastic! Everything you would expect: medicine, iodine and bandages. Smoldering ashes. Backed up by a very fine sherry sweetness. After a few minutes a light fruitiness comes to light. A bit sour around the edges now.

Taste

Sweet and phenolic at the same time. White peaches. Then the peat gets stronger and sharper. Ash. Lemons.

Finish

Long and sweet with a gentle peat smoke. Again phenolic. Lemon salt.

Overall

A truly excellent cask. All the features of a classic Laphroaig combined with a rich sweetness for the extra “oomph”. Absolutely brilliant and outstanding bottling.

Score: 96 / 100

Earlier today I already reviewed the old 15 Year Old but now it is time for the 15 Years Old 200th Anniversary Limited Edition, which replaced the 18 Year Old which in turn replaced the old 15 Year Old back in 2009. What a crazy whisky world we live in.

Facts

Laphroaig 15 Years Old 200th Anniversary Limited Edition

Nose

Not much medicine and iodine. Instead sweet peat smoke, although the focus is clearly more on the sweet than on the peat. Creme caramel and fruit salad. Hints of mint and green leaves.

Taste

Rather thin. Peat smoke and even some medicine, but very sweet one, like kids cough syrup. Fruity but overall pretty watery on the palate… tastes like some trendy vitamin water with ‘mixed fruit’ flavor. Some very subtle pepper and toffee nougat in the background.

Finish

Long, a bit peppery and peaty but altogether very mild.

Overall

Timid and shy. Do not get me wrong, this is a fine whisky but just too streamlined. It has nothing really in common with the old version. Reminds me more of one of the more recent NAS releases from Laphroaig, although of better quality. Not a game changer for me.

Score: 84 / 100

Sample provided by Thorsten Jung (Spiritscorner.eu)

Laphroaig 15 Year Old enjoyed great reputation among fans of Islay Single Malts. One of the most famous fans was probably (at least according to some sources) Prince Charles, who granted his Royal Warrant to Laphroaig in 1994.

In 2009 the 15 Year Old was replaced by a 18 Year Old. Ah, the good old times when a whisky with an age statement was replaced by another whisky with an age statement (in this case by an even older one!) and not by a NAS bottling. Anyways, for its 200th birthday – Happy Birthday by the way – Laphroaig turned back the hands of time in some sense and discontinued the 18 Year Old in favor for a new 15 Year Old bottling.

But now let’s go back in time to find out how the old 15 Year Old was. Bottled in 2009, this has to be one of the very last batches before the discontinuation.

Facts

Laphroaig 15 Years Old

Nose

Takes us right in the middle of a hospital corridor. A very strong smell of medicine, iodine and just general hospital smell all-around. Very heavy stuff! More in the background smoldering campfire and earthy undertones like turf. Suddenly, a scene change. Very maritime now. Sea air, sea weed, dried fish and smoked salmon. Opens up a bit now and some lemons and limes come to light.

Taste

Oily. Rich and concentrated. Ash and light smoke. Joined by colored pepper and sea salt. Also hints of licorice.

Finish

Very long. Strong smoke. A bit of tar and burned rubber. Rounded off by a very subtle bitterness.

Overall

Intense, yet incredible pleasant. Rich, full and beautiful old-fashioned all-around. What a cracker!

Score: 89 / 100